Thank you for visiting this page on our website, intended to give you some tips when it comes to buying a Staffordshire Bull Terrier as your family pet. You are to be congratulated for the fact that by exploring our web site and others like it, you are taking the first important step in getting a quality specimen of the breed, that of researching with recognised breeders who will provide dogs with a registered pedigree from the Victorian Canine Association (or other recognized controlling body in your region). Please be patient in trying to obtain a pup through this source, as your patience will be rewarded with a lovely dog bred to the official breed standard from quality stock. Far too often we see people run out of patience and buy a dog without papers from sources like the Trading Post etc, only to have the whole thing turn sour on them. With a consistent and regular pattern, Staffords bought without papers from sources like this turn out to not be the real thing and problems of a nature you would not want to imagine eventuate. If you take no other advice from our web site, heed this piece please. A puppy with a pedigree registered with the recognized controlling body in your part of the world is your only guarantee that the adult dog will probably fulfil all of the attributes of the Breed Standard, that make the Stafford the special breed that it is, particularly with children and other humans.

However, making contact with a recognised breeder that breeds dogs with certified pedigrees is only part of the challenge of getting a good dog and family pet out of the way. Below are some more tips you may choose to follow in obtaining your puppy:

1. In general terms you should really only entertain dealing with breeders who have been breeding dogs of this breed that can demonstrate a good understanding of the breed built up over time, and with links to the authorised breed club in your region. Without this demonstrated experience and the links to the Club, there is a possibility that they are not familiar with all of the important issues associated with producing good quality Staffords.

2. Recognised and experienced breeders who breed pups with registration papers generally show their stock to some extent or another. Show results are a good litmus test as to the compliance of offspring produced with the official Breed Standard, across a wide range of judges. Ask them how many pups they have produced under their prefix in total, and how many of them are Champions. Check the ratio, anything above 10% is a good result for a breeder that shows their stock regularly. You may find some breeders who have been in the breed and showing for lengthy periods and have produced a low percentage from their own prefix that have become Champions. This is an indicator of licensed judges attitudes to the conformation of dogs they are producing, despite the fact that they may have bought and owned dogs bred by others who may have been successful in showing. If they are coy or backward in answering questions on this point, you can obtain this information from the local controlling body of dogs in your region and are well advised to seek out this information, or even validate the answers you are given.

3. Ask the breeder about their attitudes to Obedience training. Staffords generally excel in Obedience and if the breeder has produced stock that has done well at Obedience Trials, you can reasonably make a generalisation that they are producing dogs with good temperaments. This point is particularly important.

4. Ask the breeder’s attitude to health certification. There are DNA tests available for 2 conditions in Staffords, L2-HGA and Hereditary Cataracts (HC). For more information on these conditions please see www.aht.org.uk. You should seek puppies that are being produced from parents that have tested clear for these conditions, as the offspring from 2 clear parents will be automatically clear at birth.

5. Do not, under any circumstances, pay more than $750 (in Australia) for a pup. If you are asked for more than this, you are quite frankly being ripped off. This is the price you should pay for a top show quality pup. For a lesser quality pup, you should not pay more than $650. You are likely to be given all sorts of justifications for prices higher then these, like rare colour, both parents highly awarded dogs etc, etc. It is all irrelevant, and does not justify an asking price higher than previously mentioned. Likewise do not accept that all pups in a litter are of top quality. This has never happened, and almost certainly never will. In an average litter, the general rule of thumb is that it is unusual for not more than about two thirds of the litter to be show quality, despite credentials of parents or anything else. All litters will normally have lesser quality pups that should be able to be bought for a lower price.

6. Insist on seeing both parents, and if possible as many of the grandparents as possible. If you can't at least see the parents in real life or lots of photos of them there is quite possibly something being hidden from you.

7. A deposit should not be necessary. A hand shake should be enough to seal the deal.

8. Do not accept any conditions on the sale of the pup, like showing rights or breeding rights for the breeder, unless there is some exceptionally good reason for you to feel completely comfortable with an arrangement like this. Likewise, do not, under ANY circumstances entertain breeders that see the need to ask you to sign ANY form of contract. The primary thing to remember is, in the first instance, this pup is going to be your family pet. Anything else above that is your choice for your pet by you, and should not be a pre-condition to buying the pup, especially since your circumstances may change over the life of the dog and your ability to honour any pre-condition may be compromised.

9. If possible, seek out a breeder who offers a money back guarantee, (regardless of the age of the dog), approach to taking the puppy back if things don't work out. These breeders do exist. We are such a breeder and know of others that do this as they are committed to the ongoing welfare of puppies they breed.

10. Check the validity of the breeder with the canine controlling body (Victorian Canine Association in Victoria, Australia), ask for their breeder's prefix, check with that controlling body that it is a currently registered prefix (they won't issue registration papers if it isn't), and whether the body has received any complaints from other puppy purchasers about the breeder in the past. They will share this information with you if asked.

11. Do not pay for the puppy until you have seen the official pedigree papers, or can verify independently with the controlling body that the request for papers has been lodged.

12. Finally, and most importantly, your Stafford will live for about 13 years on average. If you are not totally prepared to care and provide a home, love and affection for a dog for the next 13 years, please do not buy one. The last thing any breeder wants is to find a dog they bred in a pound or even worse being mistreated because it became inconvenient.

I trust that the above is a guide for you, but can briefly be described under 2 broad rules:

1. Only buy a puppy with a registered pedigree.
2. Buyer beware, ask lots of questions and don't accept anything that seems unreasonable.

Having explained all that, our plans for future puppies are shown on this web site at “Our Future Staffords”, and if our timeframe suit you please contact us directly by using this link. If you do, we look forward to talking more with you, but if not we wish you luck in finding a pup and if we can be of any further assistance, please do not hesitate in contacting us directly.